Internal-combustion engine.



P. J. M, SULLIVAN. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED NOV.3:0. 191?- 'Patented Aug. 191s,

' 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

P. 1. M; SULLWANL INTERNAL COMUS TLIO'N ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED NOV.30, 1917.

PetentedAug-, -6,1918.

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m 1 %13 4:4 Gib awn UNITED STATES omega PATRICK J; M oNAHA N 'sULLIvaN,or wooncLrrrn on-nunson, NEW- JERSEY, ASSIGNOR'TQ MONAHAN.ROTARY ENGINEconroRA'rIon; or NEWQYOBK, I N. Y. A CORPOBAT'ION'OE NEW YOQEtK. v v

' I'NTERNAL-GOMBU STION ENGINE.

Application filed November 30, 1917. Seri aI No. 204,575.

To all whom it may coztcem: v j Be it known that I, PATRICK JOHN Mon-AHAN SULLIVAN a citizen of the 'United States, and residentiiof Woodcliffe-omHud-l son, in the county of Bergenand State-of New Jersey,have invented certain new and useful --Improvements inInternal-Combustion Engines, of 'Which the following is a.

. specification.

being connected to a This invention is an improvement in in- "ternalcombustion engines of that: type. in

which a p'iston and a cylinder have'a rela I tive back' and forthmovement, the piston a rotary crank. The

ordinary engine of this type has thecylinder stationary 'and'the pistonmountedito.

reciprocate therein, the latter having a connecting or piston shaft.Insuch engines, it is difficult to keep the stationary cylinder properlycooled ex-' cept by a Water jacket and Water circulat-Qj ing and coolingsystem a large amount of piston an and Wear on both the pii-iton andcylinder Walls.

The objects of my invention are to over- 'come these and otherobjections and, While energy is lost and: obj ectionable jarring, fstraining and Wear is produced by the bring-1 ing of the piston to acomplete stop at each end-of every stroke; and the transfer of I powerfrom the piston to the crank or vlce .Versa, through the piston rod Whle the lat ter isat an angle to the direction of travel of the piston,produces a side thruston the d objectionable frictional resistance 7utilizing common general ,forms of piston mo unting-the piston andcylinder that they and'cyhnder, to eliminate. side thrust of the pistonn the cylinder, eliminate freciprocae.

tron of heavy parts, secure eflective air coolf jar ofthe'parts, permitof the use ofparts I accomplish theseand other objects by so {havebodily movements in jopposite direcin parallelismwith an "initialposition. A I preferred means for somounti'ng the parts "andWhich'invol'ves an important partfo'f-m'y 1 invention, includes threeparalleli shaftshavl- I done along overlapping'cir'cul'ar paths itvhileg H two trbrlring chambers and through hich the intermediate crank maybe connected to at all times maintaining their common axis Specificationof Letters Patent.

7 rod pivoted thereto for transmitting power to. the rotaryfl crank .toa standstill or suddenly chang 5 Patented Aug. 6, 191's.

-; in eo ual throvv cranks, twd ofthecranks being rotatable at the samespeed in the and is connected to, the piston. By properly gearing orotherwise connecting'the shafts "together, the desired relativedirections and speed of rotation may be maintained and I the crank pinofthe third shaft maintained in; such position that it-intersectsand is atrlght vangles to thefaxis of the cylinder;

(Thus, the piston rod may be rigidly, connected' to the piston and thethrust imparted to or by the piston-will beat all times solely in thedirection ofthe axis .of the ;cylinder rather than at an anglethereto'through a ipivotedjpiston rod asin the ordinaryconstruction. Asboththepistonand the cylinder move, the diameters of the circlesthroughwhichthe cylinder and piston move Willbe only one-half the totaleffective stroke ofthe {piston and thus the crank may have only one halfas great a throw as that'of the ordinary engine Withthejsame effectivepiston stroke. This reduction'jin the radius of the cranks verymateriallyreduces the radial pull resulting from-the 'actioiilofcentrifugal force on the cranks. At no time in the cycle do the p i tneeir direction ofmoverhent; They-all]? uniform speed 'n'their.respectiveiiarc s of v- -or enormous stresses occurring the 'ordiinpower, is effected by usinga double-ended cylinder or connecting two'cylinderst'ogether equal circlesj'wlthoutj jar,- pounding action 5 inaxial alinement so that a single'fpair of crank shafts Will' support,tWo Q Working chambers andthe' third crank placed interv mediate oftheother t'wonmaybe'yc onnected to a double-ended piston-or two pistons rigidly connectedl, No crank case'is necessary.

or desirable It isonly necessary" to have a longitudinally extendingslot' between the the piston. T p r i a a. ie: at' mpia at rs p e n-di ew re. er j i gether the several shafts, and to permit of a compact baseor frame, the three shafts may be in a plane at right angles to the axisof the cylinder with the cranks of the. two outer shafts connected tothe double-ended cylinder or pair ofalined cylinders midway betweentheopposite cylinder heads. This is'not an essential so far as theprinciple of.

operation is concerned as the two parallel cylinder supporting shaftsmay be mounted in various different positions in respect to each-other,for instance, adjacent to the opposite cylinder heads with their cranksin journals on said cylinder heads, as shown andclaimed specifically inmy application Serial No. 180,490, filed July 14., 1917.

' embodiment of my broad invention which has been built and found to.operate highly nection; and

A further'embodiment of my broad invention is shown and specificallyclaimed in my prior application Serial No. 148,057, filed February 13,1917, in which embodiment the cylinders or working chambers aresupported by the crank of only one of the.

. -I have reserved for the present application all of the generic claimsto mybroad invention andliave presented in the other applications abovereferred to only such claims or definitions of alternative forms as arenotapplicable to thespecific form hereinafter described.' Y

In the accompanying drawings, to which reference is to be had, I haveillustrated one satisfactorily and which also involves certainsubsidiary but important novel -,features 7 of construction.

In these drawings, Figure 1 1s a side elevation of an engine constructedin accordance with my invention, portions thereof being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view; Fig. 3 is a'detail of the fuel conduit con-Figs. 4 to 7, inclusive, are diagrammatic views showing the pistons andcylinders in the successive positions they take during one revolution ofthe crank-shafts.

The engine, as diagrammatically illustrated in Figs. 4 to 7 inclusive,includes a double-ended cylinder which may be considered as twocylinders 10 and 11 rigidly connected and in axial alinement. Thereinis'a double-ended piston which-may be considered as two pistons 12 and13 rigidin respect to each other and connected by acconnecting or pistonrod 14 which maybe a straight bar integral with, or rigid with,orpivoted to both pistons, For supporting the cylinders there isprovided a plurality of shafts (here shown as two'iii number) 15 and 16having equal-throw parallel cranks of a radius'equal to one-quarter thetotal desired'efi'ective piston stroke. The shafts aresupportedandjournaled in any suitable stationary bed or frame (not shown). and

the cranks 17 and 18 thereof are journaledin bearings 19 and 20 rigidwith the cylinders. 'Tliese bearings are diagrammatically illustrated asbeing in brackets on diametrically opposite sides oft-lie double-endedcylinder, intermediate of its ends, but, as will be apparent, wlientlieoperation considered, these bearings on the cylinder may be at oppositeends or at any other two spaced points. It will. also be apparent thatany number of shafts greater than two may be employed, it only. beingnecessary that they shall have parallel axes and equal throw cranks andall rotate at the same speed in the samedirection. In order to'iiisurethis equal speed and direction of rotation of the cylinder carryingshafts, any form of gearing or other connecting means may be employed.

The same'bed or frame that carries the.

two shafts 15 and 16'carries a third-shaft 1 having. a crank 22 of thesame'throw as the cranks 17 and 18, but journaled to the connecting rod14 intermediate of the ends of the latter instead of to the cylinders.This shaft has its axis parallel to the other shafts but is intended forrotation in the opposite direction. and this opposite direction ofrotation may be insured by any suitable form of gearing 01 connectingmeans between the shaft of one or all'of the other shafts.

In Fig. 4, the parts are shown at the end of one stroke. As thethree'shafts rotate,

(theshaft- 21 clockwise and the shafts 15 and 16 counter-clockwise)tlirougha quarter of a revolutiomthe parts come to the positionshown inFig. 5. It will be noted that both the piston and tlie cylinder have hadtheir common axis raised and that the piston has moved toward the rightwhile the cylinder has moved toward the left. During the next quarter ofa revolution of the shafts, the parts come to the position shown in Fig.6 in which the piston isat the oppo'site end .of its stroke.

In Fig. 7 the parts are shown in the posis tions which they occupy afterthe next quarter of a: revolution and from this position they pass on tothe position shown in Fig. 4.

The supporting of the cylinder and piston in this manner permits them tohave bodily,

planetary movements along circular paths in opposite directions while mantaining their axes at all times in parallelism with an initialposition; every part moves in a true circle; the relative reciprocationof the pie-- ton. and cylinder is accomplished Without bringing .anyparts to a dead stop at the end" of a stroke;the cylinderisefi'eo'tively air:

or compressor; It is only necessary that suitable valvesfvalve operatingmechansim and supply and exhaust conduits be pro,-

vided. The "cranks'which support.v the pistons and cylinders may bereplaced by any equivalent mechanism, such as eccentrics,- which 'W1llgive the movements above described. The power may be taken from'theengine through any one'or vthroughtwo or more of the shafts and the'engine' may be balanced by a'fly-Wheel, or a plurality of cylinders maybemounted side by side .on separate oppositely extending cranks-of the.same shaftsso that the movement of one double-ended; cylinder; and itspiston Will counter-balance the movement "of another 1 similar cylinderand piston. I

It Will also be evident that, so far as cer- I tain aspects of theinventionare involved,

one end of the double-endedcylinder and "-provided'w'ith a series ofperforations or is one end of the double-ended piston: may be omitted"so that there is provided only a sin-' gle Working chamber. The cylindermay have itsaxis extending vertically, horizontally or in any otherdesired direction.-

In Figs. 1 and-2, I have shown a practi-- cal Working embodiment of myinvention,

The bed or frame of the engine includes two side members 23 and 24 eachhaving a row of three superposed bearings forthe three shafts 15,21 and16. Between the two and supported by the cranks 17 and 18 of the shafts15 and 16 are the tWo' cylinders 10 and Hand Within the two cylindersare the r pistons 12 and 13'connectedjby the rod 14 Which latter isjournaled on the crank 22 of .the shaft 21. The movement and generaloperation of-these' parts is the same as-is diagrammaticallyillustrated-in Figs. 4 to 7-. The fcylinder is shown as, having radi-"ating-Ffla'nges toiacilitate air-cooling and as having intermediate and'exhaustpuppet valves ofa common form. As an important .part ofthespecific construction illustrated one of the cylinder supportingcranks, for lnstance, the crank 19,- has a Worm or helical gear '25meshing with a helical gear 26 car- .ried by. a camshaft "27 journaledin the bracket or extension 19 at one side of the cylinder. As both thecrank 17 and the cam shaft 18 have their axis relatively movable so faras the cylinder'is concerned, it is evident that as the shaft .l'5'rotates the gears will remain in mesh and that the cam sh aft 27"Iwill'becausedto rotate about its own,

usual stationary cylinder.

any suitable type'of carbureteror othermix ing device. This 'ispreferably stationary and the conduit connectionsare such. that themixture is'properly delivered fromjthis stationary carbureter to themoving cylin ders.- As"sh0W ,.L.Carbureter 31 is mounted on thefra-meand delivers through a conduit.

32 to .a transversely extending sleeve .33 free to oscillate about theaxis of the conduit to The explosivemixture may be formed in. I

.the cylinder' intermediate of the ends and has branches3 5 and 36leadingtolthe two: inletgports. conduit 37 is pivoted to the endo'f'themanifold and isfree to slide backand forth in the'sleeve' 33. Thus'themanifold 34. may'mo've in ajtrue circle and the conduit 37 will have amovement similar to that of theordina'rypistourod 'Ihe portion of saidconduit'37 Within. the sleeve is otherwise so constructed that theexplosive.

mixture may-(enter thesconduit 37 at all times and independently of therelative positions" of the manifold and" carburetor. .Although' thisfuel'su'pply means possesses certain important advantages, yet itfWi'll.be evident that other'means might be designed for accomplishing thedesired results.

For effecting the ignition of the explosive mixture Within thecylinders, any suitable form of igniting means may be employed. In thedrawings, I 'haye illustrated spark plugs 40 of acommontypefof;construction. I The electric current maybe; delivered-to ilip thesespark plugs throughYflexible Wiresalthough preferably I avoidthe liability of a loosening of'the connections of said Wires byproviding the spark plugs vvithbrus'hes I 41 bearing against circularcontact plates 4:2. Theseplates are'preferably insulatedv from the'frameof the machine and as they are stationary they may be readily connect--edtoih'e source of electrical energy. The radius of each plate issubstantially equal to the radius'of the cranks so that the'brushes 41will remain infproper' Contact during the.

bodily movement of the cylinders; Each plate maybe of a single annularor circular piecejofimetal and thefproper make-andreak' contacts or.timer may be in the portion of the elect-ric circuit (notshown) or theplates themselves gill MY be; formedprimarily of insulation materialwith only a,

small portion constituting alconductor and in the electric circuit.Thus, the current will be. delivered to the spark plugs only when thebrushes 41 reach the conducting portion of their respective plates 42,By

rotating the plates 42 abouttheiraxes, the.

time of the spark may be advanced or retarded.

' Any suitable means may taking care of the exhaust gas. this ispermitted to deliver directly to the atmosphere from the exhaust valvesand theiroutlets 43. These may be connected to a manifold and a deliveryconduit similar to the manifold34, its branches 35 and .36 and theconduit 37. I

be provided for For insuring'the simultaneous rotation of the threeshafts 15, 16 and 21, with the shafts 15 and 16 rotating in. onedirection and the shaft2l in the opposite direction,

- suitable gearing may be employed for conthe three shafts or, ifdesired, from allthree. In Fig. 2 I have shown a belt pulley- 45 andafly-wheel 46. One of these may necting said shafts. As shown, each ofthe three shafts has a gear wheel 44, the three gear wheels'meshing inseries. The power of the englne may be taken from any one of serve thepurpose ,of both if desired. Having thus described my invention,

what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is; 1 1. Incombination, a cylinder, a pair of cranks rotatable about parallelspaced axes for supporting the saine and maintaining it at all times inparallelism with an initial position, a piston within said cylinder, anda crank connected .to said piston and rotatable in theopposite directionto said first mentioned cranks. p

v 2. In combination, a cylinder, a piston, a-pair of parallel cranks ofequal throw for supporting said cylinder and permitting bodily movementof said cylinder along a circular path and maintaining its axis at alltimes in parallelism with an initial position', a crankconnected to saidpiston and having the same throw as ,the first mentioned cranks, andgearing connecting one of said first mentloned cranks and said lastmentionedcrank for. insuring simultaneous rotation in oppositedirections.

3. In combination, a double-ended engine cylinder, means for impartingto said cylinder a bodily movement in respect to a transversely.extending axis of rotation while retaining it in'parallelism' with itsinitial position, a piston within said cylinder, and means for impartingto said piston a bodily movement in the opposite direction in respect toJan axis of rotation parallel to said first mentioned 'RXIS whileretaining it in parallelism with an initialposition.

As shown,

4.- In combination," a plurality of cylinders in axial 'alinement andrigidly connected together, each cylinder having a working chamber atits outer end, separate pistons in said cylinders, means for moving saidcylinders in respect versely extendingaxis of rotation while retainingthem imparallelism with an initial position, and means "for moving saidpistons in the opposite direction. r

5. In combination, a double-ended cylinder, means for imparting aplanetary movement thereto about one axis of rotation, a double-endedpiston within said cylinder, and means for imparting a planetarymovement to said piston about a different axis of rotation.

6. In combination, a-,double-ended cylinder, means for imparting aplanetary movement thereto about one axls of 1'otation, a double-endedpiston within sald'cylinder, and means for imparting a planetary 0 atrans.-

movement to said piston about a different pistons a planetary movementin the opposite direction. r

9. In combinat1on, 'a pain of ri idl bnected cylinders, a pair ofI'lgldly connected pistons therein, means for imparting to saidcylinders a bodily' novement about a fixed transversely extending axiswhile retainlng said cylinders in parallelism with an imtialposition,and means for lmparting to,

said pistons a bodily movement about a separate, fixed, transverselyextending axis.

while retaining said pistons in parallelism with'an initial position.

10. In combination, a palr of rigidly connected cylinders, a pair ofseparate pistons therein, a pair of crank shafts having parallel axesand equal throw cranks,- said cranks being connected to said cylindersto permit, the bodily movement of the latter, and a third crankshafthaving its crank connected-to said pistons to permit a bodily andopposite movement of the latter.

11. In combination, three crank shafts having parallel axes and equalthrow cranks arranged in a row, a pair of cylinders in alinement witheach other and rigidly con: nected and mounted on the cranks of the twkiend crank shafts, and a pair of plstons ranged in a row and having equalthrow.

cranks, a cylinder connected to and carried by the cranks of the two endshafts, a pis-. ton connected to the crank of the interme-' diate shaft,and means insuring the simulta neous rotation of the two end shafts inthe same direction and the simultaneous rotation of the middle shaft inthe opposite direction.

14. In combination, three crank shafts an ranged in a row and havingequal throw cranks, "a cylinder bodily carried. by the cranks of twoshafts, and a piston connected to the crank of the third shaft.

15. In combination, three crank shafts ar ranged in a row andhavingequal throw cranks, a cylinder bodily carried by the cranks of twoshafts, a piston connected to the crank of the third shaft, and meansfor insuring the rotation ofthe two cranks in one direction and thethird crank in the opposite direction;

- '16. In combination, a cylinder, a piston therein, means for suporting said cylinder. and permitting ofa odily planetary movement andmaintaining its axis ln parallelism with an initial position, means forsugporting said piston and permitting of a ho ily planetary movement inthe opposite direction, an igniter carried'by said cylinder,

and means for delivering current to said igniter, said means inclnding'apair of con- ;tacts, one in the form of a brush and the other in theform of an annular plate.

17. In combination, a cylinder, a pair of cranks rotatable aboutparallel spaced axes it at all times in parallelism with an intiialposition, a valve operating cam shaft carried by said cylinder, andgearing connecting said cam shaft and one of said cranks.

18. In combination, a cylinder, means inw for supporting the same andmamtammg I eluding a crank for supporting said cylinder, and ehectingthe bodily movement thereof with said'crank during the rota-- tion ofthe latter, ashaft carried by said cylinder, gearing connecting saidshaft andsaid crank, and valve operating mechanism controlled by the"rotation of said shaft.

19LIn combinatlon, a -piston having a planetary movement in onedirection, a double-ended cyllnder having a planetary movement in theopposlte dlrectlon', a valve op- .erating cam shaft carried by saidcylinder,

and means for rotating said shaft about its axis during the bodilymovement of said cylinder.

20. In .combination,a double-ended cylinder having a planetary movementwith its axis maintained in parallelism with an initial position, asupply manifold extending lengthwise of said cylmder and connected;

to opposite ends thereof, a stationary carbureter, and a'conduit havingone end con nected to said manifold and movable along a circular pathand having the opposite end slidably connected to said carbureter,

Signed at New York, in the county of New York, and State of New York,this 26th day of November, A. D. 1917.

PATRICK J. MONAHAN SULLIVAN.

